2009 NBA draft


The 2009 NBA draft was held on June 25, 2009, at The Theater at Madison Square Garden at Madison Square Garden in New York City. In this draft, the National Basketball Association teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players and other eligible players, including international players.
The Los Angeles Clippers, who won the draft lottery on May 19, 2009, used their first overall draft pick to draft Blake Griffin from the University of Oklahoma. However, he missed the entire 2009–10 season due to surgery on his broken left kneecap, which he injured during the pre-season. Tanzanian-born Hasheem Thabeet from University of Connecticut was drafted second by the Memphis Grizzlies. Thabeet became the first player born in Tanzania to be drafted by an NBA team. James Harden was drafted 3rd by the Oklahoma City Thunder. This made him the first player to be drafted by the franchise as the Oklahoma City Thunder; the franchise moved from Seattle to OKC in 2008. The Sacramento Kings drafted Tyreke Evans 4th; he was named 2009–10 NBA Rookie of the Year, after he became the fourth NBA player in history to average at least 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in his rookie season, joining the elite club of Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan and LeBron James. Spanish teenager Ricky Rubio was drafted 5th by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Rubio became the fifth-highest-drafted international player who never played U.S. college basketball to be drafted in the NBA, tied with Nikoloz Tskitishvili, and behind Yao Ming, Andrea Bargnani, Darko Miličić and Pau Gasol. Twenty-third pick Omri Casspi became the first Israeli player to be drafted in the first round, and later he became the first Israeli to play in the NBA.
The 2009 draft marked the first time three sons of former NBA players were selected in the top 15 picks of the draft. Stephen Curry, son of Dell Curry, was drafted 7th by the Golden State Warriors. Gerald Henderson Jr., son of Gerald Henderson, was drafted 12th by the Charlotte Bobcats. Austin Daye, son of Darren Daye, was drafted 15th by the Detroit Pistons. The draft also marked the first time a former high school player who skipped college to play professional basketball in Europe was selected in an NBA draft. Brandon Jennings, who skipped college to play professional basketball with Italian team Lottomatica Roma, was drafted 10th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in the draft.
Of the 60 players drafted, four were freshmen, nine were sophomores, 12 were juniors, 22 were seniors, and 13 were international players without U.S. college basketball experience. The University of North Carolina's Tar Heels men's basketball|Tar Heels] had the most players selected in the draft; three players were selected in the first round and one was selected in the second round. This marked the second time ever that four Tar Heels players were selected in the first two rounds of an NBA draft. The Minnesota Timberwolves had the league-high four first-round draft picks and the first time in team history that the team held two top-10 draft picks. The Timberwolves also had two second-round draft picks and became the team with the most draft picks in the 2009 draft with a total of six. The Houston Rockets and the Orlando Magic were the only NBA teams who did not have a draft pick this year, although Houston acquired three drafted players' rights after the draft.
From the players in this draft, there have been six players selected as All-Stars; out of these six, Curry and Harden have both won the NBA's regular season MVP award. Nine players chosen in the 2009 draft have been on teams that have won an NBA championship: Danny Green, Roddy Beaubois, Stephen Curry, Austin Daye, Jrue Holiday, Jodie Meeks, Patty Mills, Jeff Ayres and Jeff Teague; of those, three have won multiple championships, Green, three times, Curry, four times, and Holiday, two times. Curry was named MVP of the 2022 NBA Finals.
As of 2025, there are still six active NBA players from this draft: James Harden, Stephen Curry, DeMar DeRozan, Jrue Holiday, Garrett Temple and Joe Ingles, though Temple and Ingles went undrafted.

Draft selections

RoundPickPlayerPositionNationalityTeamSchool/club team
11*~PFLos Angeles ClippersOklahoma
12CMemphis GrizzliesConnecticut
13*SGUnited Statessortname|Tyreke|Evans

Notable undrafted players

These players were not selected in the 2009 NBA draft but have played at least one game in the NBA.
PlayerPositionNationalitySchool/club team
PFUnited Statessortname|Josh|Akognon

Eligibility

The basic requirements for draft eligibility are:
  • All drafted players must be born on or before December 31, 1990.
  • Any player who is not an "international player", as defined in the collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and its players union, must be at least one year removed from the graduation of his high school class.
The CBA defines "international players" as players who permanently resided outside the U.S. for three years prior to the draft, did not complete high school in the U.S., and have never enrolled at a U.S. college or university.
The basic requirement for automatic eligibility for a U.S. player is the completion of his college eligibility. Players who meet the CBA definition of "international players" are automatically eligible if their 22nd birthday falls during or before the calendar year of the draft. U.S. players who were at least one year removed from their high school graduation and have played professional basketball with a team outside the NBA were also automatically eligible. Former high school player Brandon Jennings meets these criteria, having graduated high school in 2008, skipped college basketball and then played professional basketball in Italy.
A player who is not automatically eligible must declare his eligibility for the draft by notifying the NBA offices in writing no later than 60 days before the draft. For the 2009 draft, this date fell on April 26. An early entry candidate is allowed to withdraw his eligibility for the draft by notifying the NBA offices in writing no later than 10 days before the draft. This year, a total of 74 collegiate players and 29 international players declared as early entry candidates. At the withdrawal deadline, 55 early-entry candidates withdrew from the draft, leaving 39 collegiate players and 10 international players as the early-entry candidates for the draft.
A player who has hired an agent will forfeit his remaining college eligibility, regardless of whether he is drafted. Also, while the collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players' union allows a player to withdraw from the draft twice, the National Collegiate Athletic Association mandates that a player who has declared twice loses his college eligibility. This second provision affected Chase Budinger, Wayne Ellington, and Ty Lawson, all of whom declared for and withdrew from the 2008 draft.

Early entrants

College underclassmen

The following college basketball players successfully applied for early draft entrance.

International players

The following international players successfully applied for early draft entrance.

Automatically eligible entrants

Players who do not meet the criteria for "international" players are automatically eligible if they meet any of the following criteria:
  • They have no remaining college eligibility.
  • If they graduated from high school in the U.S., but did not enroll in a U.S. college or university, four years have passed since their high school class graduated.
  • They have signed a contract with a professional basketball team not in the NBA, anywhere in the world, and have played under the contract.
Players who meet the criteria for "international" players are automatically eligible if they meet any of the following criteria:
  • They are at least 22 years old during the calendar year of the draft. In term of dates players born on or before December 31, 1987, were automatically eligible for the 2009 draft.
  • They have signed a contract with a professional basketball team not in the NBA within the United States, and have played under that contract.
PlayerNoteRef.

Draft lottery

The lottery selection to determine the order of the top fourteen picks in the 2009 draft occurred on May 19, 2009. The Los Angeles Clippers won the first pick, while the Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder moved up to second and third picks, respectively. The Sacramento Kings and Washington Wizards, who had the two best chances to land a top-three pick, fell down to the fourth and fifth spots, the lowest possible picks they could be awarded through the lottery. The remaining first-round picks and all the second-round picks were assigned to teams in reverse order of their win–loss records in the previous season. As is commonplace in the event of identical win–loss records, the NBA performed a random drawing to break the ties on April 17, 2009.
Below were the chances for each team to get specific picks in the 2009 draft lottery, rounded to three decimal places:
^Denotes the actual lottery results

Trades involving draft picks

Pre-draft trades

Prior to the day of the draft, the following trades were made and resulted in exchanges of draft picks between the teams.

Draft-day trades

The following trades involving drafted players were made on the day of the draft.